I randomly lurked across this link through some sub-reddit viewing, oh reddit, how i love thee. But staying on track, I saw a link about a video in a magazine. I figured, they must mean a video of a magazine, like a video magazine, or maybe they mean an online magazine like those sweet interactive ones but after following the link, i learned… NO it really is a video in a printed real life magazine! how cool is that?

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We turned 4 at BlueBand Media today. Looking at the team over lunch, it was amazing to see how fast we had achieved our goals and i also realize all the sacrifices of everyone at the table.

Working at a startup is never easy. There is always more work and not enough people. Social life is hanging out at the office bar after 7pm. Always moving desks as we grow. Hand me down computers for the new team member. Taking on multiple roles. Doing whatever it takes to not let each other down.

I have always tried to lead by example and hoped that we will have a culture at BBM where,

1. Results matter
2. Treat clients and vendors like we would like to be treated
3. Push each idea until it’s the greatest

No matter what you do for a living, as long as you have the opportunity, WHY NOT BE THE BEST AT IT?

Sathish Bala
CEO

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There are many applications of the Facebook “Like” button and “Like Box”. Today we will be looking into uses and benefits of the “Like” button on product pages of brand websites. By allowing users to “Like” a specific product which they are a fan of, we can create genuine and targeted connections. Users can also see how many people like a specific product, like a social recommendation.

Utilizing the Facebook “Like” button on product pages of brand websites provides users with the ability to express themselves and create long-term connections with products they truly like. Upon liking a product the user has the option to add a comment and if they do, the post carries more prominence. When a user likes a product, a post is published to their wall and in the “Likes and Interests” section of their profile.

Behind the scenes a connection between the product and user is created, allowing marketers to gather analytical data and communicate directly with fans of specific products in their line. This connection is similar to a traditional centralized “Page” on facebook because we can now manage fans of a particular product and publish messages to them. Segmented communication is easier to implement through Facebook with the ability to pinpoint which products and users are related.

This implementation of the “Like” button leads to a decentralized presence in Facebook. It allows people to “Like” the things they really like and not a whole Brand. It is entirely possible that a centralized Brand fan page may quickly be surpassed by a decentralized product on a website in number of fans. This will allow marketers to reach bigger audiences through targeted means.

Here are some examples of the “Like” button on product pages:

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With so many companies utilizing Social Media, without much foresight, a number of problems can arise. It would be before that a consumer complaint was made to the company that wronged them. Now with Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts being used by large entities and worldwide corporations, consumer issues are immediately publicized and the time frame of response is documented and visualized for everyone in the world of the web to see. It is important to be ready and organized to combat any possibly damaging posts in the Social Media world, or face complete destruction of your brand’s image in the process.

play-this.org has an amazing article using a non-existant example top explain the importance of monitoring, cultivating, preparing, responding and promoting to create a successful brand image in the Social Web.

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As any fast growing company, we need additional services on-demand and having a good recruiting partner is something all business should consider. Finding and keeping great talent at your organization is the ultimate challenge and as entrepreneurs, we hardly have the time to be out there and meeting the right people all the time.

In my first business; NewAge Consulting, we were not able to find a recruiting partner that was capable of meeting our needs and this lead to the creation of our own consultant network. While is worked really well, there was a ton of overhead in maintaining this group of super talented people.

With BlueBand Media, the needs are different and much faster. We grew from 2 people (Chris and I) to 12 people in 2 years. The people we hired came from personal contacts, job postings, referrals and other sources. We didn’t have the time to do proper background checks, proper evaluation of skills and relied on gut instincts and first impressions. (isn’t that what you are supposed to do anyway?! LOL) For the most part we hired the right team with the proper skills, dedication and commitment to our BlueBand’s culture..oh and along the way, we did make a few mistakes and have learned from it.

As we head into 4th year (on September 1st), we are now prepared to engage a recruiting firm for long term staffing needs. We need to continue investing in senior staff with the years of experience and contacts we need to grow exponentially in the next 12 – 16 months. If you are thinking of doing the same with your business, here a few things to think about,

- less time wasted with resumes that don’t qualify
- less time wasted with interviews
- advise from recruiter on industry standards for salary and other benefits
- 15% to 20% commission on base salary and based on your size, this cost needs to be factored int to the role
- once you engage a recruiter, their job to get the deal done asap and so make sure to have time to let them help you

Final thoughts,

As entrepreneurs, our first instinct is always to get things done by ourselves and while this is good in the early days, for consistent growth, its important to have the right partners on board and have the best team for your company.

Sathish Bala
CEO

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Google has a great experiment called Google Realtime, although it’s saying the experiment is over, I think it means that she is ready to go… because it works like a charm! What realtime does is shows you results from Social Media, ie. Facebook, Twitter. Basically it shows you people’s posts if they mentioned the key words you searched. Unfortunately searching out BlueBand Media only brought up results from everyone in the office, but it is still exciting to see what people are saying about your brand. What’s really nice about this little tool is the actual realtime results, try searching something extremely popular like Facebook, and the results come up as they are being posted, if I made a search now, and someone posted with my result in their post a couple seconds after, the list will auto update and that new result will come in, in Realtime! get it?

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Astro recently launched a brand new product to their already extravagant BioBest Yogourt line. Just days after the initial launch of the Online content by Blueband, Plant Sterols is already seeing an exponential growth in attention just on the web alone. Keep in mind the couple days was a weekend, and generally speaking attention is hard to grab on the weekends, here is just a couple of links that are boasting about Astro’s brand new Plant Sterols yogourt.

foodingredientsfirst.com
nutraingredients-usa.com
npicenter.com
canadianmanufacturing.com

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Mashable has a great article up about location-based apps for small business.

Foursquare is blowing up with megabrands like Starbucks and Jimmy Choo, but smaller businesses can find a niche with smaller location-based services, as well.

Working with location-based apps will help prepare your business for the day when checkin apps are mainstream — and given that Facebook has rolled out its own checkin features, that day could be sooner than you think.

Location-based apps help you reach out to consumers in your neighborhood. They let you offer timed and targeted special offers to the people who are best-suited to respond to them. And when conducted at a small scale as part of a larger marketing mix, location-based campaigns can offer valuable insights and even some decent ROI for the bottom line-minded small business owner.

Check out these five location-based applications, and be sure to let us know in the comments about other apps you use or that you’ve noticed. We’d also love to hear how your small or medium-sized business has integrated location-based marketing.

read the rest at Mashable

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Facebook officially launched “Questions” recently, what are questions? thats a great question. It’s as simple as it sounds, you can ask the facebook community a question now!! with some more details from mashable, Questions has several defining features:

Photo questions: For example, if you take a picture of a bird, but don’t know what species it is, you can post the picture on Facebook Questions and get your answer.
Polling: If you’re simply looking for the answer to Which city is better: Chicago or Dallas?, you can get your answer by creating a poll.
Tagging: The company seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on tagging questions based on category or topic. The goal seems to be to make Q&A discovery an easier and faster process by making it simple to look up questions on cooking, photography, San Francisco or a variety of other topics.
Topic exploration: Facebook described this as a roulette-type feature that allows users to browse Facebook’s eventual mountain of Q&A. Under the “Questions about” drop-down menu, there’s a feature called “Everything” that allows users to browse the company’s catalog of questions.
Following: You can follow specific questions for updates and new answers.
Updated homepage: Facebook Questions does actually change the homepage, adding a new bar at the top of the page where you can choose to update your status, ask a question, add photos, or post a link.

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The Canadian Tourism Commission has launched interactive murals to inspire Americans to book a Canadian vacation. These murals are pulling content from Twitter to display real-time updates from and about Canada.

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